Our firm Helix has  spent the last two years researching, and developing virtual world experiences in numerous experiments internally and with clients - all with the goal to understand how Generation Virtuals will change and impact the future consumer/customer landscape.

Some of the interesting findings that we have determined are:

1.) Generation Virtuals (children ages 3-14) socialized on Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, or WebKinz look at virtual worlds as an extension to their real worlds.
2.) Generation Virtuals will continue to have multiple personas intergrated into both their virtual experiences and real life experiences.
3.) Generation Virtuals love the multi-media, colorful and rich 3D interactive experiences and find 2D experiences on the web boring and lacking "fun factors."
4.) Generation Virtuals will choose customer experiences that leverage 3D "fun" experiences into traditional purchasing experiences.

The Entertainment Economy is rapidly evolving as Virtual Worlds continue to integrate with real world and digital intelligence content and distribution models(mobile, web, etc).

From our research, Asian communities are rapidly leading in the Virtual World evolution and for Innovation to occur more rapidly in Canada - Canadians must rapidly understand how entertainment, artistic design, collaboration communities and rich social media experiences can be successfully integrated into traditional business processes. Countries like Singapore are actively stimulating national policy to promote virtual worlds for eLearning and to develop new solution delivery models.

What we have seen in the Canadian environment is a very weak receptivity to Virtual Worlds in leveraging how these solutions can add value to the enterprise for eLearning, recruiting, employee on-boarding experiences, product development and many other solutions.

There are some bright lights slowly starting to emerge as companies like Rogers experiment with Virtual worlds to train their distributors in Second Life, the ten pound gorilla. Other companies like IBM are the most prolific in this space in Canada globally with over 33 islands. They are also leading the global virtual standards movements so objects developed in diverse virtual world environments can easily be transported from one VW platform to another to achieve increased ubequity.

The Ontario Government have also been successfully experimenting for recruiting new employees using second life learning experiences, however their continued marketing of their investments and community building efforts are not up to par to drive traffic to their websites and create sustainable community participation. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of their deployment is that the maintenance of the island has been outsourced to a USA based company, and has USA resources who have not visited Canada, providing guided tours of the Ontario government's island. We believe strongly that virtual worlds are a window to our canadian culture and that careful decisions on partners needs to be reflected in the brand positioning of these solutions. Our research has been over the last 6 months monitoring the island experiences and we have yet to find a knowledgeable resource that can ask specific questions about Ottawa, Toronto, or know where Oakville is.

On the manufacturing front, there are manufacturing virtual world innovations being tested in Europe in companies like Philips who have run Ideation Quests for engaging diverse stakeholders to support ideation events. Steelcase has successfully used Second Life to simulate future chair designs in a virtual world ideation experience. To our knowledge, there are no Canadian manufacturing companies taking advantage of Second Life, a leading virtual world to develop new customer or employee interaction experiences. If there are ~ please let us know - we would love to hear from you.

There are many high tech companies like IBM using Virtual Worlds, with over 33 islands; these islands are being used to help orient or on board new IBM employees, and hold customer events etc. IBM is also very active in generating new global standards for virtual worlds.

We had hoped by now that more Canadian's would be jumping on board to differentiate their brands and create more connected community experiences. These solutions are lower cost that webex and are integrated with Skype, instant messaging and are also "fun" for employees, and customers to engage in. Some of the hurdles are insufficient broadband, or not having a graphics capable computer... so ensuring an optimal computer footprint for accessibility and interaction ease will need planning for effective execution.

Helix is very committed to helping our clients develop successful business models that tap future capabilities. Virtual Worlds is one key enabling solution that as Canadians striving for increased innovation capacity - we collectively need to learn 4 key things:

1.) What are these solutions?
2.) How can they be applied to our business model (profit or not for profit)?
3.) What and where are the best practices, lessons learned and benefits?
4.) How do I successfully get started?

We have recently issued our NEW Virtual World Research Report and it is available for purchase now at our new publishing center.

We also have developed a conference center that our clients can experiment in to learn how to use these solutions in a low risk learning lab environment, with instructional guides or event planning resources to support learning and growth for leveraging these new solutions.

Helix has also developed a NEW virtual worlds community to help our clients learn more about these capabilities.

We hope that you will join us in our new community center ...and together we can learn how these new business models will shift current and future business models.

Call us and take a safari tour of our new conference center or rent our facility - we offer low cost solutions to help our clients innovate more successfully in virtual worlds, and also use e-Collaboration solutions like (Lotus Notes, Microsoft, and Igloo).